New Delhi: The half-built Silkyara tunnel, part of the ambitious Char Dham road project in Uttarakhand, hogged the limelight since November 12 for around 17 days when 41 workers were trapped under debris and rubble when the tunnel collapsed. After their rescue on November 28 – made possible only by the efforts of rat-hole miners, who dug a narrow tunnel through the last 12 meters when drilling machines failed – Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, said the government would conduct a safety audit of the tunnel. No inquiry report is ready yet, but work has resumed on the Silkyara tunnel, reported The Telegraph on December 23. Per the report, work has begun on its other end (towards Barkot). Meanwhile, the 12 rat-hole miners who played a crucial part in the rescue said they will not encash the Uttarakhand government’s reward cheques of Rs 50,000 each because the payment does not compensate for the risk they took, per a report by The Indian Express. Silkyara tunnel construction resumes Per a report by The Telegraph on December 23, a villager in Barkot told reporters that around 40 labourers had begun work on the tunnel and that “heavy equipment including auger machines, slurry machines and backhoes” were pressed into action on the morning of December 21. “They have cordoned the area off,” The Telegraph reported the villager as saying. However, the work on the tunnel – which collapsed on November 12 trapping 41 workers inside it – has resumed before an inquiry report has been prepared, reported The Telegraph. As per one report quoting anonymous sources, a government-appointed expert investigation team has surveyed the tunnel and was scheduled to submit a preliminary report to the government. However, no confirmation of this has been reported yet. “The inquiry is in progress on the Silkyara side of the mountain tunnel but the construction company has started its work from the Barkot side,” The Telegraph quoted Anshu Manish Khalkho, director of the National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, as telling reporters in Uttarkashi. Right after the trapped workers were rescued on November 28, Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), had also said that the government would conduct a safety audit of the tunnel. The Hindustan Times had reported on November 27 that a geological report submitted to the MoRTH before construction work on the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel project began showed that the proposed tunnel could “encounter weak rocks” and that adequate support structures would be required to prop up the weak rocks. An environmental impact assessment had recommended that a 3.5 m escape tunnel be put in place during the construction, but a report by The Indian Express found that this was not done due to cost and time constraints. The 41 workers who were trapped at the Silkyara end of the tunnel for 17 days have each been awarded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh – an announcement that Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami made on the same night of their rescue. ‘Step-motherly treatment’: Rat-hole miners On December 21, Dhami handed over cheques of Rs 50,000 each to the 12 rat-hole miners who dug through the final 12 meters of debris when drilling machines and augers could go no further.“This money was allocated by the Uttarkashi administration, which also provided the cheques for Rs 1 lakh that each of the 41 trapped laborers were given,” The Telegraph quoted an anonymous government source as saying. File image of the mouth of the tunnel in Uttarakhand. Photo: X/@Delhiite_However, the rat-hole miners said they will not encash the Uttarakhand government’s reward cheques because the payment does not compensate for the risk they took, per a report by The Indian Express. The miners said that they had unwillingly accepted the cheques and would not encash them; in fact, the miners initially declined the cheques from Dhami, the report quoted Wakeel Hassan, the head of Delhi-based Rockwell Enterprises – which handled the final tunnel rescue – as saying. Hassan said that they were meted out “step-motherly treatment”. “Those rescued from inside were given Rs 1 lakh cheques immediately by the CM, but for us, who put their lives on the line, they are giving Rs 50,000. We also said we do not want this Rs 50,000 reward, but if they want to do something for us, then set a milestone that if someone does something for India, the country does the same for them,” the Indian Express quoted Hassan as saying. “We asked them to either provide us with permanent jobs or give us an amount that can help us get out of this profession so that we do not need to keep digging holes our entire lives. We have made (the government) and India proud. This should, therefore, be a milestone,” he told the Indian Express.While the Indian National Congress has accused the BJP-led Uttarakhand government of demeaning the efforts of the rat-hole miners, the BJP, in turn, has accused the Congress of being “propaganda-driven” and of spreading “baseless rumours”, IE reported.